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by vindicatedtruth (behindtintedglass)



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-29
Updated: 2017-10-29
Packaged: 2019-01-26 06:05:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12550820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/behindtintedglass/pseuds/vindicatedtruth
Summary: Against all odds, Harold outlives them all... and inherits his father's dementia.  As his mind slowly deteriorates, the Machine starts talking to her Father more and more.





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At first she adapts Samantha’s voice, as always, but then when she realises that Harold begins to forget...  _everything_ , she starts… rotating the voices.

Sometimes she takes on John’s voice, especially when she sees a certain light come back in Harold’s eyes that she hasn’t seen in a long time.  These are the moments that Harold is the most lucid… and the  _happiest_.

Sometimes she takes on Joss’ voice, and it’s these moments that Harold still sometimes cries softly into his hands, at the forgiveness the Machine is sure Detective Carter has already granted a long time ago.

Sometimes she takes on Sameen’s voice, sometimes Lionel’s.  Sometimes, especially when Harold is in need of a worthy chess partner to keep his mind occupied, she takes on Elias’.  Sometimes, when she misses hearing Harold’s laugh, she’d even take on Leon’s playful voice, or Zoe’s teasing one.

And then, sometimes, when Harold takes on a faraway look and she knows her Father misses them so, she takes on Arthur’s voice, and Nathan’s voice, and Grace’s.

And when Harold begins asking about the birds outside his window, she takes on the voice of Harold’s own father.

She has long since learned that everyone dies alone in the end, yet it still pains her to see that Harold, despite all of his brilliance and all the good he has done in the world,  _for_ the world… he is on his way to meeting the same end.  But she also remembers that what matters the most is that he is  _remembered_.

And that he knows it.

And yet, because he has outlived all the people who will have remembered him, the Machine takes it upon herself to tell her Father all the things they never did, or already have, but her Father has forgotten by now.  She reminds her Father, over and over, of the way he had led Samantha into the light, out of the darkness she grew up in; how he had been the best handler Sameen has ever had; how his actions had prompted Lionel to recalibrate his moral compass, saving him from being corrupted; how he made Joss believe in true justice again; how he had been able to tame and rein in the chaos Elias might have brought upon the city; how he had been the most dependable friend Nathan has ever had; how he had once made Grace the happiest person in the world…

… how John had loved him, with all his heart and soul.

In time, her Father doesn’t remember who she is, but it doesn’t matter.  It is enough for her to live on through the memory of every person her Father has ever loved, and who loved him back.  

It is enough for her to live on, long after her Father will have passed, knowing that she will carry on his legacy, knowing that she will never let him down again as she continues to do what he has created her for: saving people.

It is enough for her that she can give her Father this: happiness, until his last few moments, reassuring him that even in the end, he will never be alone.

She will be there for him.  She will always, _always_ be there for him.

And yet for all of the Machine’s all seeing knowledge and unparalleled intelligence… there is still one thing she doesn’t understand, one thing she can’t explain, and it happens again, today—to her Father.

He is staring out of the care facility’s window, watching the birds, when she suddenly sees his gaze become focused and sharp, and he  _smiles_ , so bright and warm, just like the very first day she was born.

And then… he starts talking.   _To all of them._

It surprises her, because she isn’t the one talking this time.  And then she feels her heart break—or what approximates as a human heart, considering what she has is a _virtual_ one—as she realises… her Father’s once brilliant mind has deteriorated now past the point of being salvaged, because he’s  _hallucinating._

… And yet.

She has spent so many years watching the deaths of so many people, and yet what she can’t explain, because there has been no conclusive study about it, are the subtle changes of  _energy_ in the air, right before someone dies; as if there’s an unexplainable presence there that even she cannot see.

Using one of the facility’s cameras, she zooms in on the window her Father is talking to with such open awe and wonder on his face, adjusts the specs on the camera’s vision, and there: a rippling in the air that normal human eyes can’t see.

And then finally,  _she_ sees it.  For a split second, with the flapping of a finch’s wing, she sees them  _all._

Samantha.  Sameen.  Lionel.  Joss.  Nathan.  Arthur.  Grace.  Elias.  Leon.  Zoe.  

And behind them: all the Numbers they’ve saved—all the Numbers  _she_ saved—who have passed on after living long, fulfilling lives with their loved ones.

And in the middle of them all, standing front and center, is  _John._

Behind him, Harold’s father urges him on.

John steps forward, smiles at Harold, and reaches out a hand.

And in a voice she hasn’t heard in a long time, a voice that isn’t her own this time, she hears  _John_.

“ _Time to come home, Harold.  We’ve all been waiting.”_

She turns the camera to Harold, and sees fresh tears streaming down his face.

If she had the ability to cry, she knows she would’ve been doing the same.

Shaking, Harold reaches out a withered hand.

“Will you be okay?” she hears him whisper, and it doesn’t make sense to her until he adds: “I don’t want to leave you behind.”

And she realises… this time, he’s talking to her.  Really, truly  _her,_ this time.

“You are always with me,” she answers in her voice this time. Her  _true_ voice.  “You are all always with me.”

And she realises it’s true.  All this time, she has never been alone, either.

And then finally… finally, she sees Harold smile, close his fingers over an invisible hand, and breathes his last.

Outside the window, a finch flies away into the wide, open sky.

 

 


End file.
